In March 2001, Deschutes County voters were asked to approve higher property taxes for law enforcement. Their answer was a resounding yes: 22,886 voted for the tax levy and 7,167 voted against it.

But the measure failed because of the "double-majority" requirement in Oregon law -- a requirement that would be repealed if Measure 56 passes on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Measure 56

Measure 56 is a constitutional amendment that would exempt elections held in May and November of any year from a constitutional provision that requires a majority vote and a 50 percent voter turnout to approve property tax increases. Under current law, only general elections held in even numbered years are exempt from the double majority requirement.

The law, the only one of its kind in the country, says that measures to raise property taxes require both a majority vote and a turnout of at least 50 percent of registered voters. The requirement applies to all elections except general elections in even numbered years, when voter turnout routinely exceeds 50 percent.

Measure 56 would effectively repeal the double majority requirement by exempting elections held in May and November of any year from the requirement.

Local government officials have long complained about the double majority provision, a vestige of the anti-tax movement that took hold in Oregon in the 1990s.

It was originally a part of Measure 47, a property tax limitation initiative written by Bill Sizemore that voters narrowly approved in November 1996.

State lawmakers said Sizemore's initiative was poorly written and riddled with loopholes and ambiguities, and they rewrote it into Measure 50, which was approved by voters in May 1997. The rewritten version incorporated the double majority provision of Measure 47.

There was an almost immediate attempt to repeal the provision, but voters rejected that in May 1998 by 16,332 votes.

Last year, the Legislature decided to try again, enacting a constitutional amendment that was referred to voters as Measure 56. The measure has wide support, from Gov. Ted Kulongoski and state Treasurer Randall Edwards, both Democrats, to a broad array of interest groups representing law enforcement officers, firefighters, teachers and other school employees, labor unions, and civic and business groups.

"Currently, a no show, someone who doesn't even bother to vote, cancels your vote and your voice," Kulongoski wrote in a statement in the state Voters' Pamphlet. "That's outrageous. It's unfair, it's bad policy and it doesn't make sense."

Opponents of Measure 56 include Sizemore; Russ Walker, vice chairman of the Oregon Republican Party and state director for FreedomWorks, a Washington, D.C.-based conservative advocacy group; and Jason Williams , executive director of the Taxpayer Association of Oregon.

They argue that it protects against tax increases being imposed by a minority of voters.

Williams said tax measures should be confined to general elections every two years, when a large turnout is assured, including nonaffiliated voters who often do not vote in primary elections.

"Why would they have an election when they know people are not going to show up?" Williams said.

Steve Buckstein , senior policy analyst at the libertarian Cascade Policy Institute, added: "Without the double majority, you can have 10 percent of voters show up and half vote yes," Buckstein said. "That sets the bar way too low."

In a study of the provision's impact, the League of Oregon Cities calculated that between 1997 and 2005, there were 548 local government tax measures on primary or special election ballots in which the double majority rule applied. Of those, 313 failed, including 141 that had a majority vote but not a 50 percent turnout.

In the 2001 Deschutes County election, the turnout was 45 percent, 3,814 votes short of 50 percent. If all 3,814 votes had been cast against the tax levy, it would have passed by more than 2-to-1, the study noted.

This has led to some perverse consequences, the study's authors said. Tax measures that fail because of the double majority are frequently brought back to voters a second or third time, increasing the cost to local governments. The requirement has also encouraged local officials to ask for tax increases in the general election, resulting in November ballots packed with competing tax measures.

Forest Grove Mayor Richard G. Kidd, president of the Oregon Mayors Association, said the double majority is unfair because it gives nonvoters even more say than voters in property tax elections.

"It has done a great deal of harm to the political system in the state and should be changed," Kidd said.